Also, Karina, that was a great link! Thanks for sharing it!

I see the sideways flashes as an alternate timeline or parallel universe that shows what their lives would’ve been like if the plane hadn’t crashed (kind of like Back to the Future when Michael J Fox goes back to the alternate 1980s). However, the storyline from the island still continues as well because it actually happened. The storyline in the sideways flashes is sort of like a branch off of what happens when the space/time continuum is disrupted when they drop the a-bomb in the 70s. Their lives are somewhat different b/c they set a whole other timeline in motion. But, in the end, they find each other’s constants anyway and when they do they remember the island (similar to what was happening to Desmond and Faraday in the last season). For me, the church scene represents the meeting place where they all wait for each other after death to move on together. Their awakenings and realizations of their life on the island may also symbolize their actual deaths in the main timeline. Christian did mention that not everyone inside the church had passed away – that there was no real time there. So, to me, it was sort of a reunion place where they meet each other. Ben may still have been alive on the island and thus he had more work to do as Hurley’s successor.

Again, I know this may not make perfect sense. But, like Meli said, I think the writers’ are geniuses and true magicians in the sense that they never reveal the secrets and they leave the audience to think and come up with their own interpretations of the story. Again, this show was unprecedented from day 1 and there has never been anything like it that only meets the audience halfway and makes them complete the story in their own way. It’s like a good book that leaves you wanting more and leaves your imagination open to continue the story in whatever way you picture it.

But yeah, had me wondering – how does a dead person give birth? :S

found this today, super insightful: http://jezebel.com/5546559/lost-finale-recap-case-closed?skyline=true&s=i

the more i reflect on the whole thing, the more OK i am with it (despite my gripes with the cheese factor of the church scene). but there’s one thing that i can’t let go of: after all of the atrocities that Ben committed, he was still given a chance for redemption, while Michael, whose sins pale in comparison, was not (despite clearly trying to do so by coming over on the freighter, sacrificing himself, and helping Hurley this season). its completely unjust, unbalanced and irks me to my core because the only reasoning i can see for it is that Ben did it all “for the island,” while Michael was doing it for his son. which symbolically could mean Ben was being rewarded for his blind faith. a concept that i loathe.

aside from that though, i loved it. lol